Steam-pump.



B. O. GAGE.

STEAM PUMP.

APPLICATION rum) DEO.16, 190a.

Patented Aug. 1, 1911.

2 8HEET$-SHEET 1.

COLUMBIA PLANOGIAPH 20. WASHINGTON, D. c.

B. O. GAGE.

STEAM PUMP.

APILIOATION nun me. 16, 1908.

Patented Aug. 1, 1911.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

UNTTED TATE PATENT @FFTCE.

BURT O. GAGE, OF 'W'ABREN, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO WARREN STEAM PUMPCOMPANY, A GORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

STEAM-PUMP.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, BURT O. GAGE, a citizen of the United States,residing in Warren, in the county of lVorcester and State ofMassachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Steam-Pumps, of which thefollowing description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, isa specification, like letters on the drawings representing like parts.

This invention relates to steam pumps, and consists in a novelconstruction of the valve mechanism having for its objectto render theoperation of the pump less violent by gradually cutting off theadmission of steam to the cylinder as the piston approaches the end ofits stroke.

The invention is embodied in a pump of the kind known as a direct actingsteam pump in which the main valve controlling admission and exhaust ofsteam with relation to the main cylinder is itself steam actuated, beingoperated by a piston,the movement of which is controlled by an auxiliaryor controlling valve which is mechanically actuated by the main enginepiston, or some part connected therewith.

In the construction forming the subject of the present invention, themain valve is actuated or moved in part by mechanical con nections fromthe main engine piston, and has its movement completed by steamactuation under control of the controlling valve, and the mechanicalValve operating connections from the main piston cooperate with a rod orstem connected with the main valve or its piston, and also with the rodor stem of the controlling valve, the construction and arrangement beingsuch that at the proper point in the stroke of the main piston, say,about as it passes mid-stroke position, it operates upon the controllingvalve which, in the first part of the movement thereof, acts upon thecontrolling ports of the valve driving engine, so as to balance thesteam pressures on the piston thereof, while, in the final part of itsmovement, as the main piston arrives at the end of its stroke, the saidcontrolling valve reverses the steam connections, and causes the valveactuating piston to be steam actuated to shift the main valve. Duringthe latter part of the stroke of the main piston, however, after thecontrolling valve has been moved to balance the steam pressures on thevalve Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed December 16, 1908.

Patented Au 1, 1911.

Serial No. 467,885.

actuating piston, as has just been mentioned, the mechanical valveactuating appliances act upon the rod of the main valve and move thesame in the direction to close theport through which steam is beingadmitted, this movement taking place in the latter part of the stroke ofthe main piston, and thus gradually cutting off the admission of steamthat is driving themain piston. At or before the time, in the movementabove mentioned, that the main piston has, by the me chanicalconnections, shifted the main valve far enough to cut off the admissionof steam to the main cylinder, the shifting movement of the controllingvalve has been completed and thus causes the main valve to be steamactuated to complete its movement by which the end of the main cylinderwhich last re ceives steam is connected with the exhaust, and steam isadmitted to the other end of said cylinder through the port which hasbeen fully opened by the completion of the movement of the main valve.

The main valve is mechanically moved to close or substantially close theexhaust port of the steam cylinder so as to cushion the piston thereinat the end of. its stroke in opposite directions, and provision is madeas will be described for cushioning the valve actuating piston at theend of its stroke in opposite directions, whereby a smooth andnoiselessly operating pump is obtained.

Figure l is a side elevation of a steam pump embodying this invention;Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section of the steam cylinder and associatedparts showing the mechanical valve actuating appliances in elevation;Fig. 3 is a sectional plan on line a Fig. 2, on a larger scale showingthe controlling valve and parts controlled thereby; and Fig. 4 isa'transverse sectional elevation at line :0 Figs. 2 and 3.

The general construction and arrange ment of the working parts of thepump may be such as are commonly adopted, said pump comprising the steamcylinder 2 by which the pump is actuated, and the pump proper 3 whichmay be of any suitable or usual construction, the steam piston 4 (seeFig. 2) being directly connected by a rod 5 with the piston or plungerof the pump so as to give the said pump piston or plunger a positivereciprocatory movement in unison with the steam piston.

Steam is admitted to and exhausted from the ends of the steam cylinder 2through ports 3 and 7 controlled by a main valve 8 shown as of the usualD valve construction, which, when moved to the end of its stroke in onedirection (say to the left, as shown in Fig. 2) admits steam through theport 7 to the opposite end of the cylinder, and permits the steam toexhaust through the port (5 and the cavity in the main valve 8 to theexhaust port 9 which has its opening in the main valve seat between theopenings of the steam ports 6 and 7. Said main valve 8 is actuated by apiston 10 working in a cylin dcr 12, said piston being double ended withthe space between its heads in communication with and forming a part ofthe steam chest, from which steam passes under control of the main valve8 to the main cylinder.

The parts thus far considered may be of any suitable or usualconstruction.

The valve actuating piston 10 is provided with a rod or stem 18extending out through a stuffing box in the head of the cylinder, andhaving pivotally connected therewith a tappet rod 14: provided withtappet projections 15. The admission and exhaust of steam to the ends ofthe cylinder 12 for the purpose of actuating the piston 10 is governedby a controlling valve 16, shown as of the D valve construction having acavity 17 which controls the exhaust port connections, as will beexplained. Said controlling valve 16 works in a. steam chest 18, shownas cylindrical in form and communicating through passage 19 with themain steam. chest so that steam is at all times admitted to said steamchest 18 and surrounds the valve 16 therein when steam is admitted tothe main steam chest to drive the engine. The said controllin valve 16is provided with a rod or stem 20 which preferably extends through bothends of the steam chest 1.8, in order to balance the action of the steamon the controlling valve 16, and said stem 20 is pivotally connectedwith a tappet rod 22 having tappet projections 23 thereon. As shown inFig. 3, there are steam ports 25, 26 leading from the seat of thecontrolling valve 16 to the opposite ends of the cylinder 12, and otherports 27, 28 having openings in the valve seat out of alinement with theopenings of the ports 25, 26 also leading to the ends of the cylinder,and having their port openings in the steam chest in alinement with theopening of an exhaust port 29 which communicates with the exhaustpassage 9 of the main engine.

The openings of the ports 27, 28, 29 are so located and spaced that whenthe controlling valve 16 is at one extremity of its movement, its cavity17 connects one of said ports 27 or 28 with the intermediate exhaustport 29, while the ports at the other end of said valve leading to theend of the cylinder are open or uncovered, the said valve, when in itsleft hand position, for example, covering and closing the steam port 25leading to the left hand end of the cylinder and connecting the per 27leading from the left hand end with the exhaust port 29, and at the sametime leaving both ports 26, 28 leading to the right hand end of thecylinder uncovered, so that steam is admitted to the right hand end ofthe cylinder 12 and exhausted from the left hand end thereof, and thevalve actuating piston 10 is thus forced to the left hand end of thecylinder 12 leaving the right hand main steam port 7 full opened, andthe left hand steam port 6 fully connected with the exhaust 9, so thatthe main piston et makes its stroke from right to left, all as shown inFig. 2.

The ports governed. by the controlling valve are also so lo *ated thatwhen the said controlling valve begins its movement from the extremeposition, say, at the left hand, as just explained, it first moves thecavity 17 far enough to disconnect )ort 27 from the exhaust port 29 andto close the said port 27,

but before it moves far enough to connect the right hand port 28 withthe exhaust port 29, it uncovers the port 25 leading to the left handend of the cylinder, but has not yet covered the steam port 26 leadingto the right hand end of the cylinder, so that in the first part of themovement of the auxiliary valve (approximately one half of its stroke)both ends of the cylinder 12 are disconnected from the exhaust, butsteam is ad mitted to both ends, so that the piston 10 is balanced andmakes no movement in response to steam pressure, but is free to be movedby any extraneous mechanical force.

By reference to Figs. 2 and 1, it will be observed that the steam inletports 25, 2G, for the cylinder 19 are located in close proximity to theopposite end walls of said cylinder, whereas the exhaust ports 27, 28are removed from the said end walls so as to leave spaces between theend walls of the cylinder 19 and the ends of the piston 10 when thelatter covers the exhaust ports 27, 28, which spaces are filled withsteam and form steam cushions for the piston 10 at the end of itsmovement in opposite directions.

The mechanical connections from the main piston to the main andcontrolling valves are as follows: The rod 5 of the main piston isprovided with a stud 85 which engages a fork in the end of a valveoperating lever 36 fulcrumed at 37 on a suitable portion of the mainframe work, and pivotally connected at 88 with a tappet 39 mounted toslide upon the tappet rods 1 1 and 22, before mentioned, that arepivotally connected with the main and controlling valve stems 13, 20,respectively. The pivotal connection of the tappet rods 1%, 22, with thevalve stems accommodates the movement of the pivotal connection at 38between the lever 36 and the tappet 39 in an are around the fulcrum 37of the lever, so that the tappet 89 has in efiect a sliding movement onthe rods 14:, 22, and has separate tappet portions to cooperate with thetappet projections 15 on the main valve rod and the tappet projections23 on the controlling valve rod. The tappet projections should be soadjusted that, in the movement of the tappet produced by the main piston4. the tappet projections 23 connected with the controlling valve rodwill be first engaged, and will be moved far enough to shift thecontrolling valve far enough to balance the steam pressures on the mainvalve actuating piston 10 as before described, by the time that thetappet 39 engages the proper tappet projection 15 on the main valve rod14, and in the further movement of the main piston the tappet 39 willcarry both valves mechanically, and about as the main piston completesits stroke the main valve will have been carried about to mid-position,having thus gradually cut off the admission of steam to the end of thecylinder behind the piston during the latter part of the stroke of thepiston. Before the main piston has thus moved thermain valve far enoughcompletely to close the port leading to the end of the cylinder, thecontrolling valve will have been moved far enough to close the admissionof steam to and open the exhaust from the end of the cylinder 12 towardwhich the valve actuating piston 10 is being mechanically moved by themain piston, as has just been described, and steam will remain admittedto the other end of the said cylinder 12, so that the valve actuatingpiston 10 will now be moved promptly by the steam pressure on piston 10to shift the main valve and fully open the exhaust from the end of themain cvlinder that has previously taken steam, and fully open the portfrom the steam chest to the other end of the said cylinder so as tocause the main piston to be driven effectively on its next stroke.

it is not essential that the balance of the main valve actuating piston10 should be effected by admitting steam to both ends of the cylinderwhile both ends are cut off from the exhaust, as an effective balancemight be produced by having steam cut oif from both ends of saidcylinder while both ends are placed in communication with the exhaust.

The important matter in the construction and arrangement of thecontrolling valve is that shortly after the beginning of its movement itcauses the steam pressures on the main valve actuating piston 10 to bebalanced and to remain so during a determinate further portion of themovement of the controlling valve, the final part of which movementcauses the steam connections to be shifted or reversed from thecondition in which they were when the movement or stroke of thecontrolling valve began.

By the herein described construction, the engine valves will be operatedwith certainty and without danger of remaining closed or partiallyshifted when the main piston completes its movement, but the admissionof steam to actuate the main piston is gradually cut off as the pistoncompletes its stroke, instead of following through the full area of theadmission port to the end of the stroke of the piston, as would be thecase if the main valve were shifted only by the actuation of the steamunder control of the controlling or auxiliary valve, and as a re sultthe main piston 4: is provided with a steam cushion at the end of itsstroke in opposite directions. Furthermore, by means of the exhaustports 27, 28, for the cylinder 19 being removed from the end walls ofthesaid cylinder and closed by the piston 10 therein, steam cushions areprovided for the piston 10 at the end of its stroke in oppositedirections, with the result that a smooth and noiselessly running pumpis obtained.

Claims.

1. The combination with the main valve of a steam pump, of a pistonconnected with said valve to move it, a cylinder in which said piston islocated having separate inlet and exhaust ports leading to the oppositeends of said cylinder, said exhaust ports being located a greaterdistance from the ends of said cylinder than said inlet ports andcooperating with the said piston to form steam cushions for the latter,means for mechanically moving said main valve for a portion of itstravel to substantially close the exhaust port of the steam cylinder ofthe pump before the piston of the steam cylinder reaches the end of itsstroke and thereby form a steam cushion for the piston of the steamcylinder at the end of its stroke in opposite directions, and amechanically operated auxiliary valve controlling the ports to thecylinder of the valve-actuating-piston and cooperating with the latterto balance the said actuating piston during a portion of its stroke andto unbalance the same at or about the time the main valve closes theexhaust port of the steam cylinder and thereby complete the movement ofthe main valve independently of the means which mechanically move saidmain valve, substantially as described.

2. The combination with the main valve of a steam pump, of a pistonconnected with said valve to move it, a cylinder in which said piston islocated having separate inlet and exhaust ports leading to the oppositeends of said cylinder, said exhaust ports being located away from theends of the said cylinder and cooperating with the said piston to formsteam cushions for the latter, means for mechanically moving said mainvalve for a portion of its travel to substantially close the exhaustport of the steam cylinder of the pump before the piston of the steamcylinder reaches the end of its stroke and thereby form a steam cushionfor the piston of the steam cylinder at the end of its stroke inopposite directions, and a mechanically operated auxiliary valvec0ntrolling the ports to the cylinder of the valveactuating-piston andcooperating with the latter to balance the said actuating piston duringa portion of its stroke and to unbalance the same at or about the timethe main valve closes the exhaust port of the steam cylinder and therebycomplete the movement of the main valve independently of the means Whichmechanically move said main valve, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof, I have signed. my name to this specification inthe presence of two subscribing; Witnesses.

BURT O. GAGE.

Witnesses Jos. P. Livnmionn, M. E. CovENEY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G.

